﻿Common Birds in Relation to Agriculture. 519 



planting of orchards, vineyards and small fruit gardens, 

 which furnish shelter and nesting sites for the catbird, as 

 well as for other species, with a consequent large increase 

 in their numbers, but without providing the native fruits 

 upon which they have been accustomed to feed. Under 

 these circumstances, what is more natural than for the 

 birds to turn to cultivated fruits for their supplies ? The 

 remedy is obvious ; cultivated fruits can be protected by 

 the simple expedient of planting wild species or others 

 which are preferred by the birds. Some experiments 

 with catbirds in captivity showed that the Eussian mul- 

 berry was preferred to any cultivated fruit that could be 

 offered. 



The stomachs of 213 catbirds were examined and found 

 to contain 44 per cent, of animal (insect) and 56 per cent 

 of vegetable food.^ Ants, beetles, caterpillars and grass- 

 hoppers constitute three-fourths of the animal food, the 

 remainder being made up of bugs, miscellaneous insects 

 and spiders. One-third of the vegetable food consists of 

 cultivated fruits, or those which may be cultivated, such 

 as strawberries, raspberries and blackberries ; but while 

 we debit the bird with the whole of this, it is probable — 

 and in the eastern and well-wooded part of the country 

 almost certain — that a large part was obtained from wild 

 vines. The rest of the vegetable matter is mostly wild 

 fruit, such as cherries, dogwood, sour gum, elder berries, 

 greenbrier, spice berries, black alder, sumac and poison ivy. 



Although the catbird sometimes does considerable harm 

 by destroying small fruit, the bird can not be considered 

 injurious. On the contrary, in most parts of the country 

 it does far more good than harm, and the evil it does can 

 be reduced appreciably by the methods already pointed 

 out. 



1 The investigation of the food of the catbird, brown thrasher, and house wren was 

 made by Mr. Sylvester D. Judd and published in the Yearbook of the Department of 

 Agriculture for 1895, pp. 405-408. 



